AIP Italian Calzone

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In the last 5 years of living a Paleo lifestyle, there is only one food craving that still pesters me from time to time. Pizza. I’m positive I am not alone. It’s why one of the first recipes I created was my popular AIP Stromboli which this recipe is based on. If you’re unfamiliar with my dairy-free, grain-free, nightshade-free stromboli, you may be wondering what is even left for a pizza-like recipe!? Well almost 3 years ago in my Chicago apartment, I combined mashed white sweet potato and arrowroot starch and baked it… and it turns into this amazingly gooey, cheese-like dough. Filled with salty and savory Italian flavors like rosemary and prosciutto, it was the answer to my pesky pizza cravings. Funny enough, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve made my own Stromboli, but I know it’s a community favorite. Now I present to you the AIP Italian Calzone. Very similar to the stromboli recipe with some tweaks to the filling ingredients, amount of arrowroot starch, and dough-forming process. No need to reinvent the wheel, right?

Don’t let the number of steps fool you though — this is a foolproof, easy recipe. After the first time you make it, you’ll become a sweet potato dough professional. And I left the ingredients open-ended… fill your calzone with any type of uncured AIP compliant meat (even use prosciutto or bacon, if that’s all you can find), olives (don’t leave them out — so delicious!), onion, seasoning mix, or vegetables (I’m thinking small diced zucchini and mushrooms would be awesome!)

This recipe serves one so if you want to make a fun date night with your partner or a friend out of it, set up little bowls of filling and let each person DIY their AIP calzone! Serve it up with a big green salad too!

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and arrange an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Have an extra sheet of parchment paper handy.

In a food processor, combine the sweet potato, arrowroot starch and sea salt until fully combined.

Spoon the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Place the extra sheet of parchment on top of the dough and use it to assist you in shaping the dough into an 8-inch diameter circle.

On one half of the circle, distribute the sausage, olives, garlic, seasoning, and spinach evenly. Use the bottom piece of parchment paper to assist you in folding the other half of the dough on top of the filling to form the calzone. It will look like a half-circle.

Brush the olive oil all over the calzone. Use a fork and the help of your fingers to gently seal the dough.

Bake the calzone for 28 to 30 minutes until the edges are lightly golden brown. Turn the broiler on high and broil for 2 to 4 minutes until the top of the calzone is a golden brown and crispy in spots.

Alaena Haber is the recipe creator and blabber, err… blogger, behind Grazed and Enthused, an Autoimmune Protocol diet and lifestyle blog. Alaena initially began blogging in 2014 to re-spark her passion for cooking while on the elimination phase of the Autoimmune Protocol, which she uses to address Hashimoto’s and leaky gut symptoms. Enthused by her rapid health progression, she decided it was time to help others by devoting more (okay, all) of her spare time to the autoimmune community. Alaena has three requirements for her recipes: they must be creative, accessible, and make others excited about nutritional healing. You can find her on Facebook and Instagram where she shares both tiny and victorious moments in her healing journey.

Being in the Caribbean I can easily find white sweet potato’s. This makes me very happy, as so many things are so hard to find here and I am getting bored just starting out on this journey. I wonder if you could make pasta with this?

I had the same problem. My sweet potato cooled for 24 hours in the fridge before I made this, so I know that wasn’t the issue. The dough was a gooey, tacky mess – a lot like drop biscuit dough. Maybe I mixed it too long in the food processor?

It does still stay a bit sticky for sure – did you follow the instructions to use the second piece of parchment paper on top to roll it out? I just plop the gooey mess onto the parchment paper covered cookie sheet in one pile, then I take the second piece of parchment paper and gently start to press down on it to create a circle of dough underneath. Sometimes I take a rolling pin and very slowly, super gently help the process along. Then I carefully pull off the top piece of paper….put filling on one half of the ‘dough’….and then I fold the top half over the filling by actually folding the whole thing over – parchment paper and everything. When it’s covering the filling, I gently start to peel the top piece of parchment paper back, leaving behind the folded over piece of potato dough – if that at all makes sense.

Once you’ve done it several times, it gets easier and easier. And is definitely worth it – this is hands-down my favourite savory AIP recipe!

I attempted to make this tonight and I feel like I did something wrong. “Dough” stuck to parchment paper. Was I supposed to cool in fridge? I cooked the sweet potatoes for almost an hour at 350 degrees. Too long?

This is a wonderful recipe and really quick to make! I cooked the sweet potato whole in the microwave, then pushed it through a potato ricer into a bowl and mixed in the arrowroot powder with a spatula and the dough turned out really well, not sticky at all.

You are a wizard genius. I just made this for the second time since seeing the recipe last week, and it is the best. I added two tablespoons of nutritional yeast to the dough, but otherwise made no changes. SO good. Can’t wait to mix this with nomato sauce.

ALSO, I am totally going to try making some sort of fruit pie (with lots of gelatin protein in the fruit compote) with this dough…

I made this last night and we loved the recipe! My hubby and 19 year old son would have liked seconds if there was more. It is weird “dough” and quite gooey and sticky but once assembled baked nicely. Thanks for the great recipe!!!

Gah! I couldnt find any arrowroot without additives so am about to try with tapioca. I did see Aleana mentions above that it’s a 1:1 replacement. Gosh I hope so! These look amazing! The hardest part is going to be waiting for those white sweet potatoes to cook!

Oh my gosh! I made this tonit and it was so so so so good! No need zucchini cheese in it…it’s perfect and yummy just the way it is. The only thing I would do differently is to broil it on both sides to crisp up both the top and bottom. This is definitely a winner!

Hi! I can’t do any arrowroot or tapioca right now- this is making a lot of the AIP recipes I’m finding hard to make! But they all look so good! Is there any substitute you all can think of that would be a good binder?? I can’t come up with anything that would be light enough and actually hold it together. Does anyone know anything about Agar Agar?

I think that is the reason why people, like me, wound up with extremely sticky dough, even though the potatoes were cool; I boiled my potatoes. I believe the water was the culprit. After baking for longer than your recipe said, the bottom wouldn’t set and stuck to the parchment paper. I ended up salvaging what I could and putting it in a frying pan to set what little dough was left.

Maybe put in the directions to bake or microwave the potatoes so no water is added. I’ll be doing that next time I try this!

I used Grazed and Enthused’s sausage flatbread (pizza) recipe for the filling, but subbed onions for squash. I should have also made the sauce from that recipe bc the filling was missing something–next time! I also followed her instructions for her stromboli recipe for the calzone, in that I slowly added arrowroot/tapioca until the dough was the consistency it needed to be. White sweet potatoes can have different amounts of moisture so the amount of flour needed will vary. I had doubled the recipe and my potatoes seemed very moist, so I had to add a lot of flour until the dough became the consistency where it could be rolled out and folded over. And, just as a note: For this recipe and her stromboli recipe, I always add the sweet potatoes right out of the microwave (hot) and never have a problem with the dough.

THANK YOU THANK YOU for this incredible recipe! It exceeded my expectations and has surely satisfied the incessant pizza/Italian food craving I’ve had after 1.5 years following AIP. I appreciate the simplicity of the dough (and especially that it is coconut free!). Can’t wait to try more filling ingredients!

Ran out of tapioca and subbed cassava flour… it’s in the oven now. the dough was a little extra delicate but still held together and I think it will hold up fine! I plan to eat it with a fork and knife anyway. I have made the Stromboli recipe multiple times and love it! Decided to try this today.

[…] on top, just as much as you would enjoy the fast-food pizza (or a delicious autoimmune friendly calzone) if you realize how important it is to look for nutrition instead of just flavor (or convenience). […]

I followed the recommendation on another comment that said to grease both parchment papers. After greasing with coconut oil my dough came off the parchment paper real well when folding it over. I also used regular sweet potatoes with great tasting success.

So I’ve made this recipe about 4 times and am getting it figured out with the dough consistency and folding it up…but every time I have trouble with the underneath side still being gooey when the bake time is over! The top is perfect. Any suggestions? I’ve baked it on parchment paper and I’ve baked it on a baking stone. I don’t have white sweet potatoes but have been using regular ones with a yummy result.

My potato dough ended up being a sticky mess even after adding a lot more arrowroot. I realized after reading the comments that I was supposed to let the potatoes cool before adding the arrowroot starch 🙁 I ended up pouring it over the filling and baking it. It was still pretty sticky after baking but the sweetness of the sweet potatoes tasted very nice with the filling. I have some left over sweet potatoes with no arrowroot starch and will probably just make more of a casserole with the leftovers and put the sweet potatoes on top.

This recipe works better if you chill your sweet potatoe mixture in the freezer about five minutes before shaping it on the parchment paper. Also I saved the top piece of parchment paper to flip the calzone half way though the baking time. I’m glad I read through the comments beforehand. Thanks

I love this recipe. I bake it right on my silicone baking sheet. I’ve made it twice in two days. It even makes its own melted cheese inside!! I look forward to make various fillings for it. I’m thinking pastrami and sauerkraut (if I can drain the kraut enough) – I miss reuben sandwiches!

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